Although still early in the AMC Eagle era 1982 signalled the beginning of the end for both the Eagle and AMC. Sales-wise a few hundred more Eagles were sold this year than in 1981 (30,923). This was the last year for the Kammback and the two door sedan, as sales for both cars were dismal. French auto maker Renault, who by now was gaining control of AMC, began utilizing more and more AMC resources for the distribution and manufacture of Renault based vehicles in the U.S. and there was not a great deal of marketing being done to sell the Eagles and especially so their 2WD brethern. Renault's heavy hand had begun to take AMC down to a bitter end. The only significant change this year was that the Select Shift 4WD system came standard, having been an option in 1981 -- and not on all models. Also available for the first time was a 5-speed manual transmission.